Today I'm going back five years to 2016 and Tottenham's Champions League Group Stage match against AS Monaco. I'm tempted to label Monaco as being from France but that's not technically correct. It's true to say that Monaco had finished third in the previous season's French Ligue 1 but Monaco is actually a separate sovereign country located on the French Riviera. The principality is home to around 40,000 residents and is widely recognised as being one of the most expensive and wealthy places in the world.
As can be seen from the programme cover, the game was played at Wembley. Wembley Stadium became Tottenham's temporary home during the construction phase of their new Stadium. As a result, Tottenham have played more times at Wembley than any other club side. Under manager Maurizio Pochettino, Spurs had been transformed into a side that would regularly qualify for the Champions League and indeed, under Pochettino, Spurs made it all the way to the Champions League Final in 2019. Those were the days my friend! Within six months of reaching that Final, Pochettino and the club had parted ways and Spurs haven't qualified for the Champions League since.
In 2016, the draw for the Group Phase of the Champions League was made in Monaco and the local side found themselves in a group containing Tottenham, Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow. Monaco would go on to win that Group with 11 points, just ahead of Leverkusen who secured the other place to qualify for the Round of 16. Sadly for Tottenham they finished third in the Group and found themselves dumped into that season's knockout phase of the secondary European competition, the Europa League with CSKA finishing bottom of the Group. Monaco had a fine run in the competition that season and beat Manchester City on away goals in the Round of 16 and then Borussia Dortmund in the Quarter Finals before succumbing to Juventus in the Semi-Final.
The match was notable for it's attendance of 85,011 It was an all time record attendance for an English club in a home game (in any competition) although that record was broken by Tottenham again a few weeks later in their game against Bayer Leverkusen. After 15 minutes, Bernardo Silva, now of Manchester City, scored the game's first goal for Monaco with their first shot of the game. Lemar put Monaco in control of the tie on 31 minutes with their second goal. Toby Alderweireld, in his first appearance in the Champions League since the 2014 Final (in which he appeared for Athletico Madrid) pulled a goal back for Tottenham right on the stroke of half time but there was to be no further scoring in the second half and Spurs had lost.
CRB Match No. 2118
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